CRASH TEST

Though the Bat­tle­field se­ries has built its name upon large-scale skir­mishes in sand-blown war­zones, Hard­line swaps the mil­i­tary for the po­lice force in a more ur­ban as­sign­ment. The episodic cam­paign drips with just the right amount of cop-show cheese, and the mul­ti­player of­fers neat cops and rob­bers twists while main­tain­ing the tra­di­tional Bat­tle­field tropes such as the heav­ily de­struc­tible en­vi­ron­ments.

CITIES: SKY­LINES

PC / $29.99 / OUT NOW

In­spired by the clas­sic SimCity se­ries, Cities:

Sky­lines is a pow­er­ful, flex­i­ble and stun­ningly beau­ti­ful city-build­ing sim­u­la­tion. It’s a more med­i­ta­tive ex­pe­ri­ence than SimCity as there are no ran­dom events or ma­jor dis­as­ters, in­stead Sky­lines is fo­cused on build­ing mas­sive me­trop­o­lises with a dizzy­ing num­ber of mov­ing parts. Im­pres­sive.

MARIO PARTY 10

WII U / G / $69.95 / OUT NOW

Not a great deal has changed since the pre­vi­ous in­stal­ment. Each board is still com­prised of nu­mer­ous mini-games which vary wildly in qual­ity. The sup­port for Nin­tendo’s Ami­ibo toys adds some nov­elty. The new Bowser mode tasks a fifth player with spoil­ing the fun for the oth­ers. Fun, but not es­sen­tial.